3 Tips You Can Use to Start, Fund and Run a Nonprofit

Serial entrepreneur Concetta Mantinan breaks down a few important business strategies. Candace Sjogren Published 1:00 pm, Friday, June 1, 2018 Photo: Hero Images | Getty Images Image 1of/1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 Photo: Hero Images | Getty Images 3 Tips You Can Use to Start, Fund and Run a Nonprofit 1 / 1 Back to Gallery Knife Skills, an Oscar-nominated documentary, describes the opening of a unique restaurant. Edwins, a fine French dining establishment, launched in 2017 with a twist — the restaurant doubles as a culinary arts school that only employs ex-felons. This film illustrates how so few organizations focus on teaching true marketable skills to our “fallen citizens.” And just as I was inspired by this film, I met Concetta Mantinan. Mantinan’s story began with learning disabilities. When she was 17, Mantinan was diagnosed with an eating disorder, ADD and other learning impairments. As she struggled in school to learn and understand, Mantinan felt ashamed and drowned it first with sugar, then with drugs and alcohol. “I was always in the worst in my class and had extremely low self-worth growing up, so I started cheating and lying through school, creating more shame,” Mantinan says in an interview. “My anxiety reached its peak when my friends went on to college, and my drinking took off. I then graduated to meth and was an addict for 10 years. None of this was about drugs, but rather about the underlying shame tied to low self-worth and self-esteem.” Once Mantinan got sober, she started… [Read full story]